frerichs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David J Frerichs) (03/17/91)
Someone asked if anyone was using a CM for VR research...
The following is part of an account by Howard Rheingold of his visit to
Japan. In this portion he talks about a company called ATR, whose vision
of VR in Japan is far-reaching. [Actually, ATR is a government research
laboratory. -- Moderator]
[quote]
ATR is about twice the size of PARC, and the atmosphere is
similar, but more modernistic --the stainless steel and blue-gray tile
factor. Like PARC, ATR consists of several different but closely
interrelated laboratories. The different laboratories at ATR are
devoted to intelligent communication systems, interpreting telephony,
the human sensory perception mechanism, optical and radio
communications, advanced telecommunications devices. In the VR lab,
the goal seems to be mass market, broadband, "wireless VR" --three
dimensional graphics without head-mounted displays, coupled to remotely
sensed gestural input that uses cameras and algorithms rather than
gloves and suits to track posture, gesture, and direction of gaze. Only
the early prototypes exist now; they are still assembling hardware for
their core research. Their graphics engines, for example, include the
first Connection Machine in Japan, alongside rooms full of Suns,
Silicon Graphics workstations, Stellar and Stardent supercomputers,
networked in various ways via ethernet and TCP/IP. With ten years
funding guaranteed at the equivalent of ten million dollars a year, and
the best minds from Japan's research establishment, I wouldn't bet
against their success.
[endquote]
[dfRERICHS
University of Illinois, Urbana Designing VR systems that work...
Dept. of Computer Engineering Networked VR.
IEEE/SigGraph _ _ _
frerichs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu _/_\__/_\__/_\_
frerichs@well.sf.ca.us \_/ \_/ \_/ ]
[Moderator's Note: Thanks to David for reminding us of this report, which
originally appeared on The WELL. It will be a part of Howard Rheingold's
book for Simon & Schuster, due to be published in June.
[It would be a great pleasure for me and a valuable gift to the other
participants if some of the Japanese laboratories would report on their work
directly. Thank you for considering this request, Japanese colleagues.
-- Bob Jacobson]